Anonymous, I'll have to disagree on this one. I've lived in SF since 1996 and worked here as a journalist. I've spent a lot of time in all the areas you mentioned, and none of them come close to the crime, blight, and decay in Flint's worst neighborhoods. In fact, my friends from Flint and Detroit who live in SF laugh about the neighborhoods considered "rough" here. For one thing, none on these SF neighborhoods have a problem with abandonment or arson. And none of them have the crime and unemployment rates of Flint's worst neighborhoods. Yes, the SF neighborhoods definitely have problems, but I'd respectfully argue that they don't have the problems that Flint has.

Gordon, I welcome your disagreement....sometimes great minds think alike...other times they don't.

And, I'll certainly concede that arson and abandonment are significantly greater issue in Flint. I make it home to Flint twice a year...and the level of arson and abandonment never ceases to amaze.

While the particular manifestations of blight and decay witnessed in Flint and SF are admittedly different....IMO, in the neighborhoods I noted...they are equally bad. Admittedly it's purely subjective.

FTR....I grew up (mostly) in the heart of Flint's 5th Ward...in the area bordered by Pasadena to the north...Hamilton to the south...Detroit St. (calling it MLK is an embarrassment to the man) and Saginaw St.

As such, things like blight...decay...abandonment...arson...are in my blood (so to speak).

I moved to SF in 1993. And I didn't just "spend a lot of time" in Bayview Hunter's Point...I lived there (thankfully, past tense). And I still own property there.

And, I would invite any of your Flint/Detroit friends to take the 3rd Street Light Rail to the Evans Ave. stop...after 11pm on a Saturday night...and walk a mile or so down 3rd St. to Bayview Park.

While it won't bridge the gap in our opinions, it will ...most assuredly... quell their laughter.

Agreed that this might be an apples to oranges comparison. I'm pretty sure the FBI breaks down its crime stats on a per capita basis by zip code, but after 20 minutes of searching I couldn't find it. But I'm not sure this would give us what we're looking for. BV is very dense, more so than any Flint nabe, I think. So I'm guessing the per capita rates are worse in Flint, but that doesn't necessarily mean BV is safer than Flint. We also get into a situation where at certain times it's pretty risky to walk through the worst nabe in any American city. The stats might vary, but it gets hard to measure if one is safer than the other.

And good luck with your BV property. I've got several friends who live in the neighborhood and they see things getting better. At the rate things are going in SF, will the google folks be moving there next. Not sure if that's good or bad.

I won't post the link, since this is a family friendly blog, but have you seen the "Judgmental Map Of San Francisco" floating around for the last several months? I'm sure a map like this will eventually surface for Flint, with Davison labelled as where Michael Moore is really from, what Grand Blanc means in French, etc., but for now, check out what's already there if you have a sense of humor.

San Francisco Shack Sells For $408,000. Pictures at link.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3287274/Only-America-s-expensive-city-Rickety-old-San-Francisco-shack-falling-apart-sells-WAY-market-value-408-000.html

Over half of New Yorkers are struggling to get by. So much for those jobs found in five minutes as a hot dog vendor. And now the spectre of terrorism rears its ugly head again. That house in Woodcroft Estates is looking pretty good.

Thanks for commenting. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.

"Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City" by Gordon Young

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Flint Expatriates

A blog for the long-lost residents of the Vehicle City by Gordon Young

"I grew up on the Eastside and recall the unexplained pride I felt when the 3:30 Buick factory whistle blew and the roughly dressed workers poured out of the General Motors labyrinth swinging their lunch pails. Some were headed for home and some for the corner bar, but all with the determined step of an army after a battle won. I somehow felt as if I were a part of this giant assembly line and the city it fed."